What's this new 'Security Center' thing in XP service pack 2 all about?

Read the article that everyone's commenting on.
Subscribe to the RSS Feed for comments on this article.

There are no comments on this article yet.

I just installed SP2 and I have Norton Antivirus and ZoneAlarm firewall so I tried to disable the Alert Settings in Security Center but everytime I reboot the settings don't save and I'm bothered with the annoying "You computer may be at risk" alert. Do you have any ideas on how to solve this? I wouldn't mind just getting rid of Security Center as it just tells me a bunch of crap that I already know.

If you open up the security center, and hit the "recommendations" button for anti-virus and for firewall, there's a checkbox that says "I have something I'll monitor myself". Select that for both and it should stop bugging you.

Leo, this does not work, for every time you reboot it resets itself and gives you the same
"Your computer may be at risk" . Is there anyway to remove Security Center all together????

Actually it does work. I've rebooted enough times to be certain of that, and the security center is not bugging me at all (and I've set it as I described - I monitor my own firewall and anti-virus). I'm not aware of any way to uninstall the security center. Make sure you have administrator privileges when you change the settings - that's all I can think of that might be getting in the way right now.

Ok well thanks for trying. It still doens't work.

Actually Leo, Randy is right. I've selected that option too and everytime I restart I get the same crap. I think it has to do with ZoneAlarm. But anyway, I have found a way to disable Security Center and I don't see any harm in doing this because it's just a stupid app that tells computer illiterate people that their comp is not protected.

To disable, click Start/Run. Type msconfig and click ok. Now click the Services tab and search for Security Center (probably near the bottom) and unselect the check box and press ok. At the confirmation box, click Restart and it will be gone for as long as that box is unchecked. :)

And thanks for trying to help Leo. I appreciated it.

You can disable it another way, too. Right-click on My Computer and click Manage. Expand Services and Applicatoins and click on Services. On the right, find Security Center. Right-click and select Properties. First hit the "Stop" button to stop the service, then in the selection box for "Startup Type" select "Disabled." Then hit "Apply." You shouldn't get any more messages as long as the service is turned off.

Hi guys - Symantec confirm that their code prevents Security Center from detecting the status of Norton Antivirus, but that an update will be available soon from LiveUpdate that will sort it out. They don't say exactly when, just 'soon after SP2 is available'. Hope that helps.

However, nice isn't it that Norton has to release an update so that the Security Center isn't thought of as a virus? Any conspiracy theorists out there...?

Thanks for the solution Kyle (and Joshua) I restarted a hundred times and the damn thing pops up everytime no matter what options I chose.

I have both Zone Alarm and Norton Antivirus but I think it had more to do with Zone Alarm since it was only the firewall annoyance that kept coming up.

To post a comment on "What's this new 'Security Center' thing in XP service pack 2 all about?", please return to that article's main page.